In A World Seething With Inequality

The thanks that a beggar gives
for the small change they are given
when they sit outside shops, in cities,
the better to attract the loose change
of customers going into the shops,
that humility, is worth more
than all the money freely given;
the words are all the beggar have to give
and even then they lose volition,
the power of choice,
in a world that does not listen,

This makes the size of the soul of the giver
small change itself in a world
where the self importance of the giver is what counts.
That said small change is better than nothing
when not caring about having a soul seems to not matter.

'The Community Of Wealth' ?

In Luke's gospel* Jesus is quoted
as saying 'Anyone who has two coats
he should give his second to one who has none',
though the word 'coat' could be 'shirt' or tunic'.
Whilst I don't know the price of the cloth
in first century Palestine, or the value
and status of having a second item of clothing
besides the what we stand up in, we all know
that having only one of anything -even just one computer,
makes for a plainer life whilst having
fewer friends through to share our modesty.

But in this age of manufacturing and luxury
many people have not just two two tunics,
but hundreds of such items in their wardrobes
-and shoes that match the opulence of the age.

And these wardrobes are in second, or third, houses
where the humans who own all this property
are by default owned by their wealth.

They can't give it away and live better with less
because of the bureaucracy that has built itself up
to defend our collective acquisitiveness,
whilst they claim their virtue through 'communities'
of interest that are built on mutual agreement,
and the infinite paradox of 'corporate charity'.   

*Luke Ch 3 Verse 11